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        )      )    * + ,     -.  An Introduction to the Exhibition Introduction for Teachers and Students The in this exhibition were produced during the sixteenth century, coinciding with the end of a remarkable period in the history of European , known as the . Beginning in the fourteenth century, new styles of , sculpture and architecture began to emerge. Inspired by the art of ancient Greece and , as well as new scientific developments, artists worked to produce highly realistic images of the human body and of the natural world. The period culminated in Italy with the , a flowering of art that was embodied in the work of , Michelangelo and . Written by Dr. Katie Faulkner To achieve a more naturalistic feel in painting, artists were experimenting with For the Learning Department new ways to use the effects of light and dark. (The Italian term can be © Royal Academy of translated into English as ‘light-dark’ and describes the distribution of light and dark in a work of art, particularly where there is a strong contrast between them.) Painters mixed and blended lighter and darker coloured oil paint, often applied in transparent layers, which allowed them to create a more naturalistic sense of depth of space, and a realistic modelling of faces, drapery and natural forms to give a three- Renaissance Impressions dimensional result. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci was seen as the Chiaroscuro woodcuts from the Collections of Georg pioneer of this technique. Chiaroscuro woodcuts developed because printmakers Baselitz and the Albertina, wanted to use woodblocks and ink to imitate the painterly effects of light and shadow in . The method enabled printmakers to create subtle gradations of tone, which are used to suggest three-dimensional volume and depth. The works in this exhibition at the Royal Academy are some of the most important and valuable examples of chiaroscuro prints, from the collections of the The Sackler Wing of Galleries Albertina Museum in Vienna, and from the private collection of the German artist 15 March – 8 June 2014 Georg Baselitz. Renaissance Impressions provides a unique opportunity to see how the chiaroscuro technique developed; from its invention in Germany in the early 1500s to the varied ways that artists across Europe, particularly in Italy and the Netherlands, experimented with this new technology and created diverse imagery, with subjects ranging from the religious and mythological to portraits and landscapes. Cover: Cat. 18 (detail) Albrecht Dürer, Rhinoceros

The chiaroscuro woodcut technique D

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1 highlights and shadows. The tone block is then cut to create the separation of In this print, based on Dürer’s original , the rhinoceros’s notoriously thick colours and the placing of contrasting areas of light and dark, from which the skin appears to have been transformed into a suit of armour. The white highlights technique takes its name. The highlights are cut away from the surface of the across the back and ribs and on the front shoulder make the rhinoceros’s hide look woodblock so they do not take up the ink. When the block is printed, these areas like burnished metal. The segmented body is covered with different patterns and remain blank, revealing the white of the paper as a highlight. A print may require textures, which look like animal skins we would recognise – patches, spots and several tone blocks, the making of which requires careful planning and great skill. scales – but this seems to have been done for decorative effect rather than Next, oil-based inks are dabbed onto the raised surfaces of the blocks. These accuracy. inks came in a wide range of colours and were usually made from mineral pigments. The rhinoceros’s head is the most naturalistically drawn, with dense, radiating Neutral or earth tones were the most commonly used, but some artists used bright lines that create deep areas of shadow between the wrinkles of the neck, and fine colours, sometimes in striking combinations. strokes that indicate whiskers under the chin and fur inside the ears. Dürer also It is important to understand that a chiaroscuro print is created in stages. The shows how the knobbly horn has grown, clearly drawing the overlapping layers of technique is very precise, because to provide a clear impression each block has to keratin. be lined up exactly. A tone block is printed first to place the highlights, the lightest The first edition of this woodcut was printed in black and white, but the image areas of the print. The inked block is placed onto a sheet of paper and then pressure became so popular that another eight editions were printed, including the dark green is applied using a screw-and-lever press (similar or identical to the type press chiaroscuro example seen here, which the Amsterdam publisher Willem Janssen invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany in the 1450s). The tone is then built printed in around 1620, using tone blocks. up in the print from light to dark, using one or more tone blocks. The colours are Cat. 18 usually closely related to one another, because the emphasis is on building up a Albrecht Dürer Look carefully at this print. Can you tell which areas were printed from or range of tonal values. Finally, the line block is printed, usually with black ink, providing Rhinoceros, defined by the first tone block? Which areas would have been printed last? 1515 and c. 1620 the outlines for the whole image. Chiaroscuro woodcut printed Why do you think Dürer’s print of the rhinoceros was so popular? from two blocks, the tone block in green How would such information about a rare or unusual animal be shared 21.1 x 29.9 cm today? Albertina, Vienna German prints before 1508 Photo Albertina, Vienna

The origins of the chiaroscuro woodcut can be found in sixteenth-century Germany, ‘[The rhinoceros] has the but the beginnings of the technology required for colour printing and the demand for colour of a speckled tortoise and it is covered coloured woodcuts emerged in the last decades of the fifteenth century. Albrecht with thick scales.’ Dürer (1471–1528) was the first German artist to make a substantial income from Albrecht Dürer after setting up his workshop in Nuremberg in 1495. The quality of prints he produced dramatically raised the status of the medium in Germany, including this work, Rhinoceros.

Cat. 18 This woodcut records the arrival of the first live rhinoceros to reach Europe since the third century AD. Dürer made a drawing, and later a woodcut, of this remarkable creature, which was a gift from the ruler of Gujarat, Sultan Muzafar, to the governor of Portuguese India, Alfonso d’Albuquerque. The rhinoceros was then sent to King Manuel I in Lisbon, where it arrived on 20 May 1515. Dürer never saw the animal himself, but reportedly based his drawing on a description in a newsletter and from sketches, which were sent to him in Nuremberg from Lisbon. Later on in the year, the King despatched the rhinoceros to Rome as a gift for , but unfortunately it did not survive the journey – the ship carrying it sank, and the rhinoceros drowned.

2 3 Buying prints was a competitive pursuit, with each connoisseur wanting his collection Northern Germany. Cranach’s St George represents to be the most lavish and up-to-date. This was certainly the case for Maximilian of an important stage in the history of colour printing Austria, who became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1508. Like many rulers and, like chiaroscuro woodcuts, was printed using and leaders, Maximilian was extremely concerned with his legacy. He was unable to multiple blocks. In the version in the , effectively control his vast empire, but instead he decided he could shape how he the paper was prepared with a wash of indigo was remembered through celebratory woodcuts and prints. These images were sent pigment to provide the blue background. The wash out and displayed on the walls of council chambers and great halls across the was applied in horizontal bands, creating the effect Imperial territory. of a cloud-streaked sky. This suggests that Cranach Maximilian’s patronage acted as a powerful stimulus to professional was attempting to emulate a style of drawing done printmakers, especially in cities such as Nuremberg and in Germany. The on a coloured background, which was very chiaroscuro woodcut emerged from the competitive atmosphere that was fostered fashionable at the time. Next, gold leaf was applied by those printmakers vying for Maximilian’s patronage, although the foundations of with a line block, to add a sense of luxury, but also the technique had been laid in the previous century. Erhard Ratdolt, a printer working to show the last of the sunlight glinting off St in Augsburg, played a key role in the development of printing in more than one George’s armour and the dragon’s scaly throat. The colour. In 1482, while working in , Ratdolt produced an edition of the book outline block was then printed in black and, finally, The Elements by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, with its preface printed in the white highlights were put in by scraping away gold. Three years later, Ratdolt was experimenting with using up to three colours in the surface of the paper. Cranach designed the the diagrams for a book on astronomy known as Sphaericum opusculum, by outline block to work also as an independent Johannes de Sacrobosco. In the same year he printed the first coloured woodcut – a composition that could be printed as a monochrome coat of arms for Bishop Johann II of Wedernberg – in black, yellow and red. print. Importantly, Ratdolt’s prints are not classed as chiaroscuro woodcuts because colour is used to fill in outlines, rather than to create the appearance of three- Cats 1 and 2 Peutinger was so impressed when dimensionality. His colour-printing method offered an alternative to colouring prints he saw Cranach’s St George that he by hand, although this remained a common practice. However, Ratdolt’s most commissioned to conduct his significant contribution to the birth of the chiaroscuro print came through his own experiment with colour printing. Peutinger collaboration with the local Augsburg artist Hans Burgkmair (1473–1531). In the Fig.1 wanted to create competition between Cranach and Burgkmair, who was one of 1490s, Burgkmair produced designs for the title pages of religious texts, to be the most important painters and the foremost designer of woodcuts in the city of printed in colour, which were published by Ratdolt. As we will see, Burgkmair played St George, Augsburg. In response to this challenge Burgkmair produced a pair of prints, his c.1505–10 a decisive role in the development of the chiaroscuro woodcut in the first decade of Colour woodcut printed own St George and the Dragon and a print of Emperor Maximilian on Horseback. the sixteenth century. from two blocks Maximilian was devoted to St George, who he believed personified all the ideals of 23.3 x 15.9 cm Christian chivalry. He actively encouraged the status of the knightly Order of St The British Museum, London © Trustees of the British Museum George, in preparation for a religious crusade against the Turks. These elaborate equestrian figures were a means of promoting the Emperor’s own image as a Claims to invention: defender of the Christian faith. The prints on view in the exhibition represent an Hans Burgkmair and Lucas Cranach important step in the development of the chiaroscuro woodcut. Burgkmair’s technique differed from Cranach’s. The paper sheet was prepared In a letter written in 1508, Conrad Peutinger, who closely advised Emperor ‘I have, together with my with a coloured wash in the same way, but rather than using gold leaf Burgkmair Maximilian on many of his artistic projects, mentioned receiving woodcuts of knights artists, discovered a method of printing in picked out specific details using metallic ink applied directly to the block. Crucially on horseback, made with ‘gold and silver’. He was referring to Lucas Cranach the gold and silver on also, Burgkmair used a tone block rather than a line block to create white highlights. Elder’s St George (fig. 1), printed the year before and now in the British Museum. parchment and paper.’ The name Jost de Negker appears in both prints, and he is often given the credit for Conrad Peutinger, writing Cranach (c. 1472–1553) was the son of a painter and as a young man he had to Duke Georg of Saxony, introducing the tone blocks to these impressions. De Negker (1485–1544) was a travelled around Germany and Austria seeking work. In 1505 he became the court 24 September 1508 specialist woodcutter, originally from Antwerp in Belgium, but had settled in painter to Frederick the Wise of Saxony and set up a workshop in Wittenberg in

4 5 Cat. 1 Cat. 2 Hans Burgkmair the Elder Hans Burgkmair the Elder St George and the Dragon, Emperor Maximilian on 1508 and c.1509–10 Horseback, 1508 and 1518 Chiaroscuro woodcut printed Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two blocks, the tone from two blocks, the tone block in beige block in greenish beige 31.9 x 22.5 cm 32.2 x 22.6 cm Collection Georg Baselitz Albertina, Vienna Photo Albertina, Vienna Photo Albertina, Vienna 6 7 Cat. 3 Augsburg in around 1509. Printmaking was a collaborative process, and Burgkmair Lucas Cranach the Elder and de Negker worked together closely, with the artist focusing on the design and St Christopher, 1509 and the cutting of the woodblock and printing left to the trained craftsman. second half of the sixteenth century Chiaroscuro woodcut printed Cat. 3 De Negker also worked with Cranach, and there was some dispute about from two blocks, the tone exactly which artist or printmaker first discovered the chiaroscuro woodcut block in yellowish technique. Burgkmair, Cranach and de Negker were each eager to claim the 28 x 19.6 cm invention as their own. Cranach also adopted the use of the tone block in his work, Collection Georg Baselitz Photo Albertina, Vienna St Christopher. Cranach shows St Christopher clambering up a riverbank carrying a small child on his back. According to legendary accounts of his life, St Christopher was over seven feet tall and had a fearsome face. He endured a long search to find a way to serve Christ, until he met a hermit who suggested that Christopher’s size and strength meant that he could help others cross a dangerous river. After he had been performing this service for some time, a little child asked Christopher to carry him across. As they attempted to ford the river, it became swollen and the child became heavier and heavier. When they finally reached the shore the child revealed himself to be Christ. In his version of this religious subject, Cranach used a tone block for the first time. He left parts blank to allow the white paper to create highlights. This adds a particularly painterly effect to the landscape as light gleams upon the rocky cliff and through the puffs of cloud. The print is now dated between 1509 and 1510, but the earliest versions were signed with the date 1506. It seems that Cranach deliberately predated the prints to falsely suggest that he had pioneered the use of tone blocks before Burgkmair and de Negker, making it appear that he had invented the chiaroscuro woodcut. Even today, the lack of precise documentary evidence and the close working relationship de Negker shared with both Burgkmair and Cranach make it difficult to establish who was the first to use the technique, but the composition may give us some clues. In Cranach’s St Christopher, horizontal lines on the rocks, on the surface of the water and in the sky seem to unify the whole image. The line block and the definition provided by its black outlines are still important to Cranach in this woodcut. In contrast, Burgkmair’s St George and the Dragon and Emperor Maximilian on Horseback show a painterly modulation between areas of light and shadow, rather than a reliance on graphic lines, which may suggest that Burgkmair and de Negker were the first to pioneer the chiaroscuro method.

Why was there such competition between Cranach and Burgkmair to claim the invention of the chiaroscuro woodcut technique?

Why do you think there was an appetite for cutting-edge and luxurious prints among collectors?

8 9 The spread of the chiaroscuro woodcut: Hans Baldung Grien Artists across Germany began to follow Cranach and Burgkmair’s example and ‘For some learned men adopted the chiaroscuro woodcut technique, including Hans Baldung Grien propound this reason; that there are three (1484–1545), who produced some of the most original works of art in the medium. things in nature, the Unusual for an artist at this time, Baldung came from a family of professionals rather Tongue, an Ecclesiastic, and a Woman, which than artisans. His father was a lawyer working for the Bishop of and his know no moderation in uncle became honorary physician to Emperor Maximilian. Hans Baldung (whose goodness or vice; and when they exceed the nickname ‘Grien’ may have arisen from his use of the colour green) probably worked bounds of their alongside Albrecht Dürer, between 1503 and 1507, as his student in Nuremberg, but condition they reach the set up his own workshop in Strasbourg in 1510. He began working with the greatest heights and the lowest depths of chiaroscuro technique when it was still very new, although it is not known exactly goodness and vice. how Baldung learnt the method. He would certainly have been aware of Burgkmair’s When they are governed by a good spirit, they are work as they both contributed to Emperor Maximilian’s project to produce a lavishly most excellent in virtue; decorated prayer book in 1515. but when they are governed by an evil spirit, they indulge the worst possible vices.’ Cat. 12 Baldung’s subtle use of the tone block and his highly expressive style, seen James Sprenger and Henry in his Witches’ Sabbath, was unlike anything seen in Strasbourg before. Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum, 1486 Representations of witchcraft were common in the early sixteenth century, but based on his woodcuts, it seems that Baldung had a particular interest in magic and the supernatural. At this time Malleus Maleficarum, known as the witch-hunting manual, was a popular book and may have inspired some of Baldung’s imagery. Here, the witches are shown preparing to worship the devil. Skulls and bones litter the ground and a witch’s cat sits hunched next to a tree. Four witches are cooking up a sinister concoction in their cauldron, while above them another rides a flying goat. As the young witch lifts the lid off the cauldron, fumes billow up into the sky. Baldung has captured the upward movement of the clouds and plumes of smoke with long, sinuous lines from the key block, which are echoed in the tone block and the highlights. The horrifying aspects of the image are counteracted by Baldung’s interest in the female form. The tone block has been printed in grey, and the shadows and highlights emphasise the erotic poses and rounded bodies of the witches. The fine, delicate lines in black and white are suggestive of soft, pliable female flesh.

Cat. 12 Hans Baldung Grien Witches’ Sabbath, 1510 Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two blocks, the tone block in greyish beige 36.7 x 25.4 cm Albertina, Vienna Photo Albertina, Vienna

10 11 The chiaroscuro woodcut comes to Italy:

‘Nor has there been Although artists such as Baldung, Burgkmair and Cranach produced prints that are wanting one who has considered to be among the highest achievements of printmaking, the chiaroscuro had the enterprise to execute with woodcut technique was not used for long in Germany. The technique soon found a woodblocks prints that new home in Italy. Nowadays, thanks to modern methods of communication, artists possess the appearance can share and exchange ideas almost instantly. In the sixteenth century, however, of having been made with the brush after the artistic ideas took longer to spread, but even so there was still constant manner of chiaroscuro, communication between cities. Merchants from across continents travelled in order which is an ingenious and difficult thing. This to trade their goods and artists moved around looking for work or inspiration in the was Ugo da Carpi, who, great collections of the aristocratic courts of Europe. The artist Ugo da Carpi although he was a mediocre painter, was (c.1480–1532), for example, would have discovered Cranach and Burgkmair’s nevertheless a man of chiaroscuro woodcuts when they were brought to Venice, which was at the centre of most subtle wit in the Italian publishing industry. He even claimed he invented the technique in 1516, strange and fanciful inventions.’ a myth reinforced by the sixteenth-century biographer . Giorgio Vasari, ‘Lives of Ugo da Carpi did not, as he claimed, invent the chiaroscuro woodcut technique, Marcantonio Bolognese (Raimondi) and Other but he was responsible for introducing it to Italy and went on to develop the method Engravers of Prints’, Lives in exciting ways. Interesting differences in the approaches of German and Italian of the Artists, 1568 artists began to emerge. German artists gave greater importance to the key or line block, which essentially completed the design, while the tone blocks provided background tints. In Italy, artists tended to place far more emphasis on creating large areas of tone, punctuated with dark accents and bright highlights.

Cat. 39 Ugo’s prints, such as his Cat. 39 Ugo da Carpi, after Diogenes from 1527, are considered to be masterpieces of the chiaroscuro woodcut. Diogenes, c.1527 There are many different impressions of Chiaroscuro woodcut printed the print, each of which has been made in a from four blocks, the tone blocks in brown slightly different way. Diogenes was 47.6 x 34 cm created after a design in red chalk by Collection Georg Baselitz another artist, Parmigianino (1503–1540), Photo Albertina, Vienna (fig. 2), which Ugo realised using four blocks. Broad areas of colour create an Fig. 2 effect very similar to painting. The ancient Parmigianino Greek philosopher is shown as powerfully Diogenes, 1524–27 Red chalk, heightened muscular and although he sits reading a with white chalk book, the twist of his body, the billowing Private collection cloak and the acute angles in the crooked arm and bent knees add a sense of dynamism to the static pose. Ugo emphasises this by a bold use of white highlights picking out the rippling muscles.

12 13 This focus on creating dramatic or unusual movement was one of the central The status of the artist: concerns of Mannerist art, an artistic style that was predominant in Italy in the originality and collaboration 1520s. The lack of an enclosing line block also creates a more effortless effect than the busier and more laboured drawing style of German chiaroscuro prints. Visualising ‘This elastic concept The artists and printmakers included in this Royal Academy exhibition lived in how to produce a four-colour woodblock print was very complicated, but artists of authorship and different cities and each would have worked according to different financial rewards ownership seems fairly aspired to draw and cut with a spontaneous and graceful style, to demonstrate that straightforward … But and constraints, thus it is difficult to generalise about the operation of each different they could handle their materials with great confidence. Although Ugo’s involvement there were many artist or workshop, but it is important to understand that printmaking was a possible configurations with chiaroscuro prints only lasted a few years, the complexity of this image shows of people who came collaborative enterprise. In Germany, chiaroscuro woodcuts were generally made how far the chiaroscuro woodcut technique had developed in just two decades. together to produce an according to original designs. In Italy, the chiaroscuro woodcut had a much longer and get it history and was generally used to reproduce images made by other artists. This can onto the market.’ Evelyn Lincoln, The be seen clearly in the prints that came from the workshops of Ugo da Carpi and his Invention of the Italian followers. Renaissance Printmaker, Domenico Beccafumi and Andrea Andreani 2000 The language associated with printmaking in sixteenth-century Italy gives a picture of the different roles of people involved with the trade. An incisore or The chiaroscuro woodcuts of artist Domenico Beccafumi (1486–1551) are among intagliatore was the engraver or cutter, who would have had to be highly skilled in the most original and fascinating examples of the chiaroscuro technique. Unlike the both drawing and carving the wooden blocks used to make his prints. The other sixteenth-century woodcutters who predominately came from Northern Italy, woodblock cutter would often require the assistance of the impressori, or printers. Beccafumi hailed from Siena. He was an exceptionally versatile artist, who was also The printer applied ink to the woodcuts and ran them through the printing press. active as a painter, sculptor and engraver, and his painterly distribution of colour and Finally, the editore was the person responsible for publishing, marketing and selling light clearly follows the approach of Ugo da Carpi. One of Beccafumi’s favorite the prints. subjects was the portrayal of apostles who, riveted by a vision, gaze into the distance As the business of printmaking involved so many different people, it is not or are rendered lost in thought. In some cases, Beccafumi combined the techniques surprising that artists such as Ugo da Carpi were anxious to make it clear who had of copperplate engraving and chiaroscuro woodcut – a complicated process come up with the original print design and to define its legal owner. At the same requiring two different printing presses. He used this approach for representing a time, woodcuts were also being used to make copies of works by different artists. pair of apostles (cat. 86) in which the white highlights match the delicacy and linear Ugo produced woodcut copies of famous paintings by Raphael and Parmigianino, for style of the thinly etched lines of shading. This speaks to Beccafumi’s subtle late example, but one of his pupils, Antonio da Trento (1508–1550), took to the extreme style, in which he aimed to achieve the precision of copperplate engraving in the the idea of reproducing the work of other artists. According to Giorgio Vasari, woodcut process. Antonio lived in Parmigianino’s house. One morning, before Parmigianino was awake, Born in Mantua, Andrea Andreani (1540–1623) was the most famous and Antonio stole a trunk filled with his master’s woodcuts, copper and prolific Italian artist making chiaroscuro works towards the end of the sixteenth . Although Parmigianino eventually got the prints back, he never saw his century. His style of cutting was careful and controlled, faithfully conveying the drawings again. character of the designs on which he based his sheets. The artist soon began to tackle chiaroscuro prints in huge formats, for which he used several blocks with four Cat. 54 Although Antonio da Trento’s design for Narcissus is taken from a black plates each. With these monumental formats, which probably served as a substitute chalk drawing by Parmigianino, it still demonstrates his great skill as a printmaker. for paintings, Andreani explored the limits of the chiaroscuro woodcut. In 1586 he The subject originates from Greek mythology. Narcissus was a very beautiful young moved to Siena, following in the footsteps of Beccafumi. He executed woodcuts man who rejected the love of the nymph, Echo. As punishment for his cruel rejection after Beccafumi’s inlaid marble mosaic floors in Siena Cathedral, and collaborated of the girl, he was made to fall in love with his own reflection and, over time, with the most important Sienese artists of the day. transformed into a flower on the bank of a pool of water. Ironically in this image, his Between 1602 and 1610, Andreani dedicated himself almost exclusively to the handsome face is turned away from the viewer. The plants and trees are intricately reissue of earlier chiaroscuro woodcuts by other artists. He reworked partly drawn, with the veins of the leaves and succulent bunches of grapes visible beneath damaged blocks or added new ones. In doing so, he frequently removed the names them. These details do not detract from the young man’s body, which is the main of former cutters and replaced them with his monogram ‘AA’, which identified him as focus of the image, but there is a close visual relationship between his sleek and the owner and publisher of the prints.

14 15 Cat. 54 elegant physique and the nature that surrounds him. Densely hatched lines are Antonio da Trento, after used to denote both human flesh and the bark of the tree, and even the shapes Parmigianino of the muscles of Narcissus’s back resemble the tree trunk. This perhaps points Narcissus, c.1527–30/1 to Narcissus’s eventual metamorphosis into a flower. At the same time, the Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two blocks, different areas of the drawing are kept distinct from one another by Antonio’s use the tone block in brown of smooth, continuous outlines and the bright white highlights that fall across 28.9 x 18 cm Narcissus’s ribs and spine, in contrast to the areas of deep shadow in the Collection Georg Baselitz Photo Albertina, Vienna undergrowth. The sculpted bust of a woman (Echo, we presume) sits in the bottom left-hand corner of the print. Her tragic facial expression adds further emotional depth to Narcissus’s plight.

Artists such as Ugo da Carpi and Antonio da Trento did not produce their own original designs for their prints. How does this affect the importance of their work?

The Netherlandish chiaroscuro woodcut In contrast to its history in Germany and Italy, the development of the chiaroscuro woodcut in the Netherlands was far more fragmented. No one style or tradition of coloured woodcut dominated; and the medium did not attain the same level of popularity as it had done among German and Italian collectors. The chiaroscuro woodcut was explored by a small number of artists, some of whom were not primarily printmakers. Perhaps their lack of conventional printmaking knowledge allowed them the freedom to push the technique in alternative directions and explore new possibilities.

Cat. 97 overleaf Cat. 97 The first Netherlandish artist to exploit the full potential of the chiaroscuro Frans Floris woodcut was Frans Floris (1517–1570), a painter and etcher from Antwerp. He had David Playing the Harp visited Italy in the early 1540s, primarily to study antique sculpture in Rome, but before Saul, 1555 while he was there he also paid great attention to the work of contemporary Italian Chiaroscuro woodcut artists. It is likely that his chiaroscuro woodcuts were inspired by the work of artists printed from four blocks, such as Ugo da Carpi and Michelangelo. the tone blocks in pale red In David Playing the Harp before Saul, the figure with crossed arms in the and reddish brown, on brownish paper centre of the composition is, in his stance and clothing, a direct quotation from 33.4 x 48.1 cm Michelangelo’s fresco paintings for the Pauline Chapel in Rome. Features of the way Collection Georg Baselitz the woodblocks were designed and cut also suggest an Italian influence. The Photo Albertina, Vienna woodblock cutter for this piece, Joos Gietleughen, has arranged the colour broadly across the composition; pale highlights are distributed over the surface, and delicate black lines define the details. This style is similar to woodcuts by the Italian artist Niccolo Vicentino, based on drawings by Parmigianino which are included in this Royal Academy exhibition.

16 17 18 19 (1558–1617) was one of the most important and Cat. 103 experimental printmakers in the Netherlands. Goltzius was born fifty years after the Hendrick Goltzius invention of the chiaroscuro woodcut technique in Germany. He is best known for his Hercules Killing Cacus, 1588 drawings and engravings, but his woodcuts display a wide variety of styles and Chiaroscuro woodcut subjects. He worked with the medium for fifteen years at the very end of the printed from three blocks, sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, first using the line block, then the tone blocks in yellow relying purely on tone blocks, before reintroducing the line block. Unlike Floris, who and green 41.1 x 33.3 cm worked with woodcutters to produce his prints, Goltzius generally cut his own blocks, Collection Georg Baselitz which indicates that he wanted to retain a great deal of control over the finished Photo Albertina, Vienna results. The development in Goltzius’s woodcuts can be closely aligned to his drawing style. Some of his woodcuts seem to have been made because he wanted to experiment with the medium, rather than to meet the demands of publishers and collectors. Goltzius did not see the chiaroscuro woodcut purely as a way of reproducing paintings, but wanted to explore the new artistic potential of it.

Cat. 103 Between 1588 and 1590, Goltzius produced a number of chiaroscuro woodcuts featuring subjects taken from classical mythology. Like Floris, Goltzius had travelled to Italy in 1590. In this woodcut we can see him combining the elegance of the Italian Mannerist style with his interest in anatomy and unusual poses. Hercules Killing Cacus from 1588, one of Goltzius’s largest and most impressive woodcuts, shows a scene from the twelve labours of Hercules. The hero’s tenth task was to journey to the end of the world to steal a herd of red cattle from Geryon, a three- headed, six-legged monster. On his way back to Greece, Cacus, a savage, fire- breathing giant, stole the cattle, which can be seen on the right-hand side of the print. Goltzius shows Hercules at his moment of triumph. After breaking into Cacus’s cave, he is about to slay his enemy with a club. Goltzius has chosen a pose, legs splayed, arms raised high above the head, which allows him to emphasise the strength in Hercules’s straining muscles. His body is athletic and his pose graceful in comparison to the grotesque twists of Cacus’s torso and arm and the knotted, bulging muscles of his thighs and back. This print reflects Goltzius’s skill and versatility as a woodcut designer. On the line block he has used short, irregular strokes to model the musculature of the figures, contained within fluid outlines. These lines would not make sense, however, without the colour provided by two tone blocks, which were used to create a sense of depth and volume, through the contrasting of yellow and bright green and the dramatic lighting.

Why might Goltzius want to control all stages of the printmaking process?

20 21 The function of prints luxurious and expensive. Since these woodcuts were used to decorate everyday items that suffer wear and tear, few have Chiaroscuro woodcuts were generally printed onto paper and they were easily survived, even though they were printed in large numbers. reproduced, making them much cheaper than an oil painting on canvas or wood. This meant that people from different social classes could afford prints, although the high quality woodcuts in this exhibition would still have commanded high prices. Woodcuts and prints were displayed in many different ways: they could be carefully Collecting chiaroscuro woodcuts placed in frames, or carelessly pasted up onto a wall. Some collectors gathered their prints together into albums. In the sixteenth century, woodcuts and other types of print Prints also played a very important role in the education of artists and artisans. had a wide variety of useful functions. Most popular prints Cat. 95 were produced to be used, which means they are now very Artistic training in the sixteenth century revolved around studying works of art from Erasmus Loy ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the work of contemporary artists. Learning to Courtyard with rare and often in poor condition. The chiaroscuro woodcuts draw from copies of great paintings and sculptures was one of the first and most Renaissance Architecture, that survive today and that make up this exhibition mostly c.1550 important stages in an artist’s training. A young trainee would not generally be belong to a particular category – high quality works of art Chiaroscuro woodcut allowed to learn how to become a painter, sculptor or engraver until he or she had printed from two blocks, made by identified artists such as Dürer, Ugo da Carpi or mastered the art of accurate draughtsmanship. If they could not visit a work of art in the tone block in reddish Goltzius. These chiaroscuro prints were not aimed at the person, they could instead study a printed reproduction of a painting. Most brown popular market, but were produced for well educated, 44.2 x 36.1 cm printmaking workshops would also keep model-books, albums of the best examples knowledgeable and wealthy collectors and connoisseurs. Collection Georg Baselitz produced by their workshop, so that apprentices could learn to Photo Albertina, Vienna Works such as Goltzius’s Hercules Slaying Cacus or accurately reproduce their teacher’s style. Baldung’s Witches’ Sabbath were not for everyday use; they were safely stored in albums, protected from light, dust and Cat. 95 Some rare woodcuts by the human hands. German engraver Erasmus Loy (1535– In Germany, these collectors were part of a newly 1570) had a very unexpected Fig. 3 emerging class of professionals, men like Hans Baldung’s father, a lawyer. They function. These woodcuts are made their money through trading with other European nations and serving courts or decorative depictions of Alcon Slaying the Serpent, the state. A professional man in the sixteenth century would have been educated at c.1510–26 Renaissance architecture. The university and would have had a deep knowledge of Latin, Greek and ancient history. Colour woodcut printed from architectural forms are two blocks, the tone block This emphasis on learning about the classical world was an important part of what simplified and the in olive green was known as a humanist education. Woodcuts and other prints often feature chiaroscuro effect relies 27 x 18.3 cm obscure subjects and complex meanings taken from classical literature and myth, The British Museum, London purely on tones of black © Trustees of the British Museum intended to interest or flatter the intellect of these wealthy collectors. Hans Wechtlin and brown. The overall (c.1480–1526), a printmaker working in Strasbourg and following the example of effect emphasises pattern Cranach and Burgkmair, often depicted unusual subjects from classical mythology. rather than line. These His Alcon Slaying the Serpent (fig. 3), from 1510, was certainly aimed at well- unusual prints were used educated patrons. The classical subject and story represented here was obscure, as wallpaper, which would even in the Renaissance. Taken from the works of the Roman poet , Alcon was have been glued to wood a skilful archer from Crete. Wechtlin shows Alcon rescuing his young son from a panelling or furniture to serpent by shooting it with an arrow. Collectors who were interested in classical art imitate the effect of wooden would also have been drawn to this woodcut because Wechtlin’s depiction of Alcon’s inlay. Householders would son being squeezed by the serpent is reminiscent of a famous ancient Roman have bought these cheap sculpture, the Laocoön. In contrast, prints aimed at the mass market would show a prints to make their different range of more accessible subjects, such as portraits, well-known events furnishings seem more from history or myth, and images from traditional folklore.

22 23 The European courts were also important centres of patronage and collecting. Emperor Rudolph II, grandson of Maximilian I, raised Renaissance court patronage to an unprecedented level of extravagance. Rudolph II was among one of Goltzius’s most important collectors, but he also gathered prints from all over Europe. Such aristocratic and royal collections provided an important foundation for the study and preservation of prints today. The Graphic Art Collection of the Albertina Museum in Vienna, from where many of the prints in this exhibition come, is a good example of this. The museum’s collection was founded in the eighteenth century, by Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen. In 1919, the palace and its art collection were handed over to the newly established Republic of Austria and opened to the public. There has also been a long tradition of artists collecting prints, woodcuts and engravings. Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) is one of today’s most important contemporary artists and engravers, and many of the works on display at the Royal Academy are from his personal collection. He uses some of the same traditional working methods that were employed in the sixteenth century, fuelled by his interest in and collection of Renaissance prints.

Conclusion The production of chiaroscuro woodcuts saw its heyday in the sixteenth century, when artists across Europe were responding to the return of classical forms and working towards achieving the perfection of naturalism that characterises . The chiaroscuro woodcut technique was initially developed because printmakers wanted to achieve the same effects of contrast and relief that made Renaissance painting so realistic. This period also saw a rise in the status of the print and a new demand for luxurious, coloured prints. As precious in the Renaissance as they are to us today, these works give us an insight into the intellectual, spiritual and sensual lives of the artists and collectors of the sixteenth century.

Bibliography Renaissance Impressions: Chiaroscuro woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and the Albertina, Vienna, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014 Giulia Bartram, Prints, London, 1995 Sharon Gregory, Giorgio Vasari and the Renaissance Print, Farnham, 2012 David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, New Haven and London, 1994 Evelyn Lincoln, The Invention of the Renaissance Printmaker, New Haven and London, 2000

Cat. 2 (detail) Hans Burgkmair the Elder Emperor Maximilian on Horseback

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